Listen and Learn

I’ve been VERBOTEN from doing squats by everyone and their mother this week leading up to my trail race this weekend, and I’m trying to actually listen to people for once. It’s an exercise in patience and moderation, but maybe after I run without bonking I’ll be singing an appreciative tune.

It’s official, I’m old. Confirmation came this past Memorial Day weekend, when I went sailing with my old boss from Chico State. He recently retired and keeps a boat down here in San Diego and offers to take P and me out whenever he is in town. P is an accomplished skipper or sailor or what have you and absolutely loves it. I love sitting in the sunshine sipping on a beer, it works out. Sailing the SD coast is wonderful, just don’t get too close to Coronado Island or the Navy will publicly shame you for looking at their boats too closely. They loudspeaker you to move away, and if you don’t listen they send a boat out after you, luckily with our amazing crew (see: Phil) we did just fine.

Being out on the ocean and in that sunshine has me longing for a trip to a yoga resort somewhere in Central America or the Caribbean, but at the moment the big trip on deck for 2013 is Christmas in London, definitely NOT tropical or warm. Part of me wants to send myself to one of the local Southern California retreats as a long Bday weekend next year. The one pictured and linked is one I have in mind out in Ojai, CA. *Source

Perhaps… Until then I only have 28 days until I’m spending the weekend at Wanderlust LA in Santa Monica. Here’s a schnazzy little article on ways to avoid boredom eating that I read today. I’m totally guilty of this, and as I’ve learned over the past year of intensively healing my relationship with food–old habits die hard. I’m finally feeling like a normal person in relation to my body’s hunger cues, cravings and calorie needs, but I still feel like I can eat until I’m sick if I let myself, and I will eat even if I’m not hungry, just because it’s a habit. “Oh, it’s 10:30am, I should eat, because I always snack at this time” is commonplace, I feel that being mindful is the best thing I can do in these moments. Be present in each moment and you’ll start to notice behaviors, habits and triggers that you can work to adjust. We had an ice cream social at work yesterday for our students, it was pretty fabulous, but I was legitimately not hungry (even for the non-dairy options) so I passed on the spread (go me! Listening to my body, who am I?) and just stuck around to answer questions and touch base with the student’s as they push forward into their final’s week. I hope everyone else is enjoying the slide into summer, I’ve got a race tomorrow! Yay!!!